We explore Skyrim's granite heart in The Elder Scrolls Online: Markarth

As the days grow chillier and 2020 draws to a close, so too does The Elder Scrolls Online's year-long adventure, The Dark Heart of Skyrim. Markarth, the fourth and final portion of the MMORPG's voyage into Tamriel's frostiest region, takes us into the "untamed Reach" - one of Skyrim's nine holds, the capital of which is the titular Dwemer City of Stone - and brings an "epic conclusion" to its vampire-riddled storyline. If a whistle-stop tour of the DLC with the RPG game's devs is anything to go by, there's plenty to sink your fangs into. Spoilers ahead, folks.

The Reach, Skyrim's westernmost hold, is instantly familiar from The Elder Scrolls V even though ESO is set a millennium earlier in time. I saddle up with lead content designer Jeremy Sera on an insectoid Dwemer buggy - the new group mount - with lead gameplay designer Rob Garrett alongside on a boring old horse. The buggy is the perfect ride for exploring the Reach's rocky terrain: it can scutter up Skyrim's byways like a clanking metallic spider. Be warned, though - as Sera jokes, and I discover later at a river crossing, "If you have an incompetent driver, you might end up swimming".

Though its battlements are more primitive, with logs and tattered banners flanking its walls, Markarth is unmistakable. The city's recently been taken by The Reachmen, Sera tells me as we approach - these are a collective of clans led by Ard Caddach, the so-called 'Despot'.

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